Welcome
Welcome to the Course Guide for COMP 100. Below you will find a selection of information and resources that will be helpful when completing assignments for this course.
A helpful hint to remember is that research is exploratory process. Good research means that you will be searching different resources (databases, online, catalog, etc.) and you will search each one multiple times with different keyword combinations.
Pick A Topic
If you are stuck trying to decide on a topic for your paper, there are a few ways to generate ideas.
- Scan newspaper headlines
- Browse chapter titles in your textbook
- Check out what's trending
- Use a Topic Idea Generator
- Use the "Browse Issues" section in the Opposing Viewpoints Database
- Opposing Viewpoints in Context This link opens in a new windowContains a variety of media rich content, including over 20,000 pro/con viewpoints, approximately 19,000 reference articles, interactive maps, infographics, and more. Cross-searchable with Gale In Context: Global Issues. National Debate Topics category provides quick and easy access to content on frequently studied and discussed issues. Educator Resources include a research toolkit with tips on analyzing issues with opposing viewpoints, distinguishing fact from opinion, evaluating information sources, and recognizing deceptive arguments.
Background Knowledge
When you begin a research project, it is a good idea to take a moment to reflect on your prior knowledge of the topic area. How much do you already know about this topic? How confident are you in moving forward with this topic? In most cases, you will need to do a bit of research to get some general information on your topic.
A great way to gather background information is through searching reference materials. Reference materials such as Encyclopedias and Dictionaries are arranged alphabetically and contain a general overview of a term or subject matter. The library has access to encyclopedias and dictionaries in print and online through particular databases. Two great general reference databases are located below.
- Britannica Academic This link opens in a new windowProvides reference sources in almost all disciplines. Also includes historical timelines, multimedia, selected magazine articles, notable quotations, and a dictionary and thesaurus.
- Gale eBooks (formerly Gale Virtual Reference Library) This link opens in a new windowBroad cross-curricular collection of non-fiction titles, supporting science, geography, history, language arts, business and other subjects. Optimized for search and discovery, the Gale eBooks platform enables you to search through multiple nonfiction eBooks within a single search.
Locating Print Sources at Milne Library
Search provides sweeping access to books, ebooks, articles, movies, music, and more through a user-driven platform supporting your research interests. You can use Search without signing in. However, to access e-books, you will need to sign in when prompted.
There are two main ways to use Search.
Milne Search allows you to search simultaneously for books, ebooks, articles, movies, music, and more. You may use keywords, titles, authors, or phrases. Refine your results using the choices on the left. For example, if you want to discover the newest results then select Sort by. Explore Resource Type, also on the left, to get a sense of the various materials available to you.
Library Catalog is commonly used to search the physical collections of the James M. Milne Library, including ebooks, by an author’s name or a book’s title. You may also use keywords to search the library catalog, which contains the table of contents for many records. Subject headings are included in keyword searching and are assigned to all library catalog holdings.
While Milne Search and Library Catalog are two of the main searching functions in Search, there are others available for use. Child Collection, Course Reserves, EMC Media, NY State Collection, Reference, Special Collections (SCC), SUNY Catalog, and Young Adult (YA) are all options to choose from. These collections can be searched exclusively by selecting them in the top menu. For example, selecting Child Collection will include results only from that collection.
Locating Online Resources
Electronic articles can be searched through our databases. There are some general databases and some subject specific databases. To access the databases, click on the database tab on the library homepage. You can then browse through them alphabetically, or browse by discipline (i.e., gender studies, history, etc.).
Below you will find a list of databases that will be helpful for your current assignment. It is not an exhaustive list, but it is a good place to start.
- Academic OneFile This link opens in a new windowProvides over 54,000,000 articles, most full-text, from about 13,000 scholarly journals across most academic subject areas. Coverage is from 1980 to the present.
- Academic Search Complete This link opens in a new windowFull text for about 8,500 periodicals including over 7,300 peer-reviewed journals across most areas of academic study as well as indexing and abstracts for more than 12,500 magazines and journals. Coverage is from 1887 to the present.
- Communication Source This link opens in a new windowCommunication & Mass Media Complete (CMMC) offers full text and cover-to-cover indexing and abstracts for journals covering communication, mass media, linguistics, rhetoric, language, logic, and other closely related fields.
- Diversity Studies This link opens in a new windowA subset of Academic OneFile. This collection explores cultural differences, contributions and influences in our global community. Includes more than 150 journals. Coverage is about from 1996 to the present.
- Gender Studies Collection This link opens in a new windowAims to provide balanced coverage of gender studies topics such as family issues, marital issues, and health aspects. Coverage is from 1980 to the present.
- GenderWatch This link opens in a new windowOffers authoritative historical and current perspectives on the evolution of gender roles as they affect both men and women. Coverage is from 1970 to the present.
- Google ScholarIncludes most peer-reviewed online journals from the largest scholarly publishers as well as scholarly books and non-peer reviewed journals. Links to full-text due to Milne Library subscriptions. A useful feature is the ability to see who cited an article.
- Humanities SourceIncludes both Humanities Full Text and Humanities International. Contains over 1400 full text journals with citations to over 3,500,000 articles.
- JSTOR This link opens in a new windowFull-text access to over 1400 core scholarly journals and e-books across most subject areas.
Can be used for course content: Titles from many university presses and other academic publishers. - Opposing Viewpoints in Context This link opens in a new windowContains a variety of media rich content, including over 20,000 pro/con viewpoints, approximately 19,000 reference articles, interactive maps, infographics, and more. Cross-searchable with Gale In Context: Global Issues. National Debate Topics category provides quick and easy access to content on frequently studied and discussed issues. Educator Resources include a research toolkit with tips on analyzing issues with opposing viewpoints, distinguishing fact from opinion, evaluating information sources, and recognizing deceptive arguments.
- Points of View Reference Source This link opens in a new windowContains full-text essays representing multiple sides of about 250 topics; in addition, the database includes political magazines, radio and television news transcripts, primary source documents, and reference books. Designed to provide a series of controversial essays that present multiple sides of a current issue. Essays provide questions and materials for further thought and study and are accompanied by thousands of supporting articles from the world's top political and societal publications.
- Project Muse This link opens in a new windowFull text database of over 100 scholarly journals and books from university presses in fields including literature and criticism, history, the visual and performing arts, cultural studies, political science, gender studies, and economics. Includes books from many university presses and scholarly journals
Librarian
Sarah Rhodes
Understanding the Lingo
Conducting research can be difficult when you are unfamiliar with the terms being used to describe certain types of items. If your instructor asks you to use a periodical, would you know what they meant? If you had to locate the call number in an item’s record, could you? It is important to familiarize yourself with what particular library words mean.
Refer back to some of the handouts received in class. The Definitions handout and Types of Periodicals chart will be particularly useful to keep.
Citation
Whenever you use information from an article in your paper (either through direct quoting or paraphrasing), you need to create a citation.
There are three main citation styles – MLA, APA, and Chicago. MLA tends to be the citation style preferred by the arts and humanities discipline. APA is the citation style that is typically used by the science disciplines. Chicago style is primarily used by the history discipline.
The library has created handy guides for you, which can be found by visiting the library homepage and clicking on the “Citing Sources” link located under the Reference and Instruction heading. This link also contains additional resources that may be helpful for you.
The library’s citation guides are also available in print near the Research Help Desk.
Interlibrary Loan
The ILLiad system enables current SUNY Oneonta students, faculty, and staff to obtain academic and intellectual materials from other libraries. Your ILLiad account will allow you to:
- -- borrow items from other libraries
- -- make online requests for periodical articles from other libraries
- -- review the status of your requests
- -- check due dates of outstanding loans
- -- ask for renewals
- -- and much more.